all the world Quae ad ordinem spectant ut precum formulae disposuit Apostolus Those things which appertain to order as do forms of Prayer the Apostle himself appointed and disposed So that set Forms in the judgement of M. Beza are Apostolical The English Translation reads it thus Such things as appertain to Order and Form of Prayers and other such like the Apostle took order for in the Congregation according to the consideration of times places persons 1 Cor. 11. 39. Yea after the great Reformer Martin Luther had a while tried what it was to want a set Form himself professeth lib. de Formula Missae coactus sum I am constrained observe by what and to what constrained he was alios Canones aliamque Missandi Formulam prescribere to prescribe fresh Canons and another form of Mass And if you please to observe by what he was constrained his words are Propter leves fastidiosos spiritus qui sola Novitate gaudent atque statim ut Novitas desiit nauseantes By reason of light and humorous spirits who onely delight in Novelty nauseating what themselves liked when it ceaseth to be new A humour which the first Zeal of our times did not digest and therefore whether I appeal to Beza or the more eminent Luther still a set Form A set Form according to Beza's note because Apostolical A set Form according to Luther because woful and extavagant experience demonstrated the necessity of it No curb for fastidious and rambling spirits but a set Form Fourthly The want of set Form prevents that which I am bound for to endeavour the conversion and communion of the adverse party for either I must perswade them to worship God according to my discretion and rely upon the implicite faith of my prudence or else I must produce a Form in which I desire their communion and to which I must endeavour their conversion Now I believe all those who renounce an implicite faith in the whole Church or in the Representative of it all such I say at least will abhor so far to resigne themselves unto a private Minister as to worship God all days of their lives according to his mutable dictate I am sure the Papists will say this is worse than what we call Popish servitude for they are bound onely to believe and serve God as the Church orders but where all is left to the will of the Minister people are bound to worship and serve God as his private spirit leads them and I wish I could not feelingly say even from follies vented in my own Pulpit what an Ignis fatuus that is Lastly To avoid prolixity for my own particular should I renounce a set Form I must needs profess my self guilty either of Superstitious Innovation or which in materia Religionis is bad enough popular insinuation First That to worship God without a Form is Innovation this the whole Christian world will attest unto me the Eastern and Western Churches Wittemberg where Luther Geneva where Calvin Scotland where Knox flourished and to innovate and act against a Catholick Custom of Christendom of the whole Christian world may breed a scruple in a wise much more in a weak Christian Secondly As Innovation so it would seem to me unavoidable superstition and that whether Superstition be positively or negatively considered for Superstition being positively considered being the issue of misgrounded Zeal this superstition is active in the production of superstitious performances whereof this is one to conceive that God will be pleased with no prayer from me unless of my own conception nor no devotion unless it be of our own invention this I say is the superstitious issue of a misguided zeal Again as misguided zeal is the Mother of superstitious performances even so ignorant fear is the motive and cause of superstitious forbearances as when one vainly fears and in that fear refrains such an act as displeasing which indeed is rather pleasing to Almighty God Touch not taste not bandle not these are negative superstitions issues of ignorant fear And so far as I can conceive scrupulously to reject or lay aside set Forms as superstitious is out of ignorant fear really and actually to commit pardon the phrase a negative superstition Thirdly Again should I not superstitiously which as drawing nigher Religion is more honest of the two lay aside a set Form I cannot imagine any other principle but popular insinuation to move me to it and to make that a motive in Religion scarce appears to me religious Omnia ponenda post Religionem nostra Civitas duxit If the Pagans had so much Divinity as to say it was a Law in their City that all things whatsoever must give way unto Religion certainly it behoveth me who am a Christian in matter and point of Religion to look upon nothing through a carnal or secular Perspective Now to me and with me runs the whole current of Antiquity set Forms of Prayer and Worship they are the most religious and assured means either to preserve or advance Religion The scruple then is whether any of my judgement and perswasion may for any popular or secular end in the world and for that end merely lay aside a better and assume in God's worship a worse way whether this be not having a Male in my Flock to offer unto God a Female judge you That blessed speech of Sir Benj. Ruddierd to Mr. Rym He that thinks to save any thing by his Religion but his Soul will be a terrible loser in the end It is worthy to be written in letters of gold yea worthy to be engraven in the Heart of every Parliament-man that sits it is indeed a saying that hath so far prevailed on me that I begin extremely to question the truth of that vulgar opinion that the Worship and Government of the Church of Christ are so left as to be accommodated to the proportionable exigences of States and Kingdoms For my particular I conceive the glory of God attended municipal Laws ought rather to stoop than they to strain for Religion is so tender a Virgin that she may not admit the least prostitution and I am sure a conscientious breast feareth to rumple her very ornaments Whereas then to worship God without a set Form seems to me destructive of the form of sound words which charily must be preserved a worship more careless than what Pagans used an Innovation which takes away the very ground and basis of conversion and communion with an adverse party whereas it would be in me either Superstition or Popularity to desert a set Form I must crave leave to follow these Dictates till I have better premises given me from which I may conclude otherwise And so I shall desire your patience to accompany me to my last endeavour which is to shew that I cannot with a good conscience renounce or as yet lay aside this our individual Liturgy and that for these reasons 1. It maketh our Religion to be
them Lastly Forasmuch as the muniments of Religion are preservers of the dearest thing imaginable Gods glory and our Souls welfare I do not know what I should suffer in defence of if not of these I lately reading as it fell proper to the day the fifth of Esay when I came to those dreadful words I will take away thy hedge and it shall be eaten up break down the wall and it shall be trodden down it made my Heart even ake to think how applicable this methodical destruction is to our ungrateful Vineyard I will take away the hedge I will break down the wall Take the Hedge and the Wall away cut up the Fence and the Vineyard will soon be waste the Government the Discipline the Liturgy which as a Hedge or a Wall ever since our Reformation preserved the Vineyard since I see it hath pleased God to suffer this Hedge and the Wall to be trodden down I can but fear confusion and desolation to be the sequel For since the worldly wise man verily believes where the Fence is wanting spoil and waste inevitably followeth and therefore his main care is to tend it Even so where the muniments of any Profession or Religion are slighted and taken away where Liturgy this thirteen hundred years without controversie held the Hedge and mound of Faith and God's Worship in a national Church where I say this is pull'd down and taken away there is imminent and evident fear a gap is opened to let in whatever will come be it the beast of the field be it the little Foxes be it the wilde Boar of the Forest come what will there is no muniment no provision no fence against it so that in my poor conceptions the Hedge the Fence the Muniment of the Church they are matters of such necessary consequence that Ministers I conceive had better lay themselves and all their Fortunes in the Gap than for want of fence to suffer the destroyer to come in Indeed I have been told by some who wish very well unto me that humane inventions and things merely circumstantial ought not to be thus stood upon I thank them heartily for their affection and bless them for their good will but our judgements yet must differ For if no suffering for humane invention if life it self may not be exposed to hazard in defence of humane constitutions certainly then no fighting for the Laws of the Land nor no taking up arms for Priviledge of Parliament for these sure are humane and political institutions and as these are necessary for the preservation of a State even some such are also necessary for the preservation of a Church and of such Church-men cannot be too chary Again whereas Liturgy in genere or ours in specie is counted but a circumstantial business I believe I may finde out such circumstantials in a Christian Church as will hazard the whole if they perish In the tenth Persecution under the Tyranny of Dioclesian a Decree pass'd ut Templa libri delerentur that Christians should deliver up their Books and destroy or at least permit the destruction of their Churches Books and Churches I conceive are but circumstantials to Religion for the world was more than 2400 years old before there was any Scripture in it yea the Christian Church it was from the birth of Christ more than 90 years before the Canon of the New Testament was compleated yea after the Death and Resurrection of our Saviour there is supposing his passion at 31 ten years numbred before any Gospel at all was committed unto writing twice ten before the second thrice ten before the third and more than three twenties before the last a plain argument that Books and Writings are but circumstantial to Religion for one may live and die a very good Christian and know never a Letter on the Book Suppose now the Pope and Popery should so far prevail as to have power under the notion of Books heretical for so they will not stick to call our Bibles to call in and under pain of death to deliver up our Bibles even to the fire could any conscientious Protestant satisfie his Soul with this poor evasion Alas the Bible is but circumstantial the Doctrine and Religion of it I can preserve though the Bible be gone Without all peradventure it is most true a learned and well-grounded Christian he may preserve the faith he may deliver and hold fast the form of sound words though among Turks where a Bible is not to be looked upon and yet for my particular I should scarce look upon that man as a Christian who to save his Purse yea his Body should deliver up his Bible to the fire In the Roman Martyrology there is a commemoration made of many holy Martyrs who despising the sacrilegious Edict of Dioclesian 7. Quo tradi sacros codices jubebantur potiùs corpora carnificibus quà m sancta dare canibus maluerint chose rather to deliver their Bodies to the Executioner than holy things to Dogs or holy Books unto the fire And truely I should rather honour these as Martyrs than those for good Christians who under pretence of things circumstantial should deliver those to save themselves so highly I conceive God would be dishonoured in the betraying of so great a preserver and muniment of his honour Again as Books even so to some much more clearly Churches Oratories Temples they are mere circumstantials Now suppose the Independent and Congregational Brother-hood should so far overpower as to command the demolition as they call them of our Steeple-houses the destruction and levelling of our Churches I would very fain know whether in point of conscience I were not rather bound to suffer than in any measure to appear willing to so high a Sacriledge I who am Flesh and Blood as well as other men could finde pretty evasions and glosses to fool my Soul withal I could say as I hear is not a Sermon as well in a Parlour as in a Church Did not Christ preach in a Ship Paul pray upon the Sands and shall I suffer in defence of so unnecessary a trifle as an heap of Stones a popish Relique a sorry Meeting-house For my particular I am afraid many things are daily called circumstantial not with consideration whether so or no but because these are the things in question these the points which I must either dissemble desert or suffer for I pray let me as a close to this present you with the example of one who though a Bishop was ever reverenced as a Saint and a good man I mean that great Doctor St. Ambrose who being once tempted and provoked even in this very point and that by no less than the Emperour to deliver up his Church though it pleased the Emperour in a fair way to send Earls and Tribunes to him ut Basilicae fieret matura traditio that there might be a seasonable deliverance of that Royal Palace for so his piety terms
is about Worship it self and to glance at the high expedient of Vniformity therein 2 Kings 17. you may read what these Samaritans were to wit a people planted in Samaria in room of those Ten Tribes which were carried to Assyria Now this people by necessity and out of a fear of extirpation by Lions sent for a Priest of the Lord to put them in a right way of worship He came but as it is written they would not be ruled they would not be ordered by him for they feared the Lord and served their own gods Now it seems to me very observable that those who would not be ruled by the Priest of God those who would serve gods of their own they could never agree what gods to have nor what Religion to set up Every one is singular every one for his own invention for his own gods Vers 30. the men of Babylon they set up Succoth-Benoth the men of Cuth they set up Nergal the men of Hamath they set up Ashima But the Avites they would none of these and therefore they set up gods of their own Nibhaz and Tartack yea the Sepharvaims they will none of them for they set up Adrammelech and Anammelech the gods of Sepharvaim And is it not proportionably so even at this day Those who will have no Churches nor no Temples but their own Bodies in them they will have no worship but onely what their private spirits and their own Fanatick conceptions shall set on foot So that the Samaritans never set up more gods than they do Idols Things they call Religion Ordinances Worship when indeed they really are Self-conceit Spiritual Pride superstitious Abominations Even so too too many among us they will not worship the living God unless they may have the humour of their own Inventions that is do it their own way So that as the Samaritans worshipp'd they knew not what even so do these and all Fanaticks worship they know not how The ready way to make confusion as it daily did to cover the whole Face of our Land again For if the men of Babylon may set up Succoth-Benoth why may not the men of Cuth set up Nergal And if they may set up Nergal why may not the men of Hamath set up Ashima If every Sect and every different Party may follow their own Inventions and follow their own gods or their own worship I then cannot see any reason in the world why the Missal as well as the Directory and the Anabaptist as well as the Presbyterian should not have their Way It is very very lately since we in this Land might have said There was no King in Israel And yet even then look what there followeth was not permitted to the Sons of the Church For whereas it is written Judg. 17. 6. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes sure I am what was right not onely in our Eyes but in the Eyes of the whole Church was not then permitted The plea of a tender Conscience it could then have no hearing For besides Indictment upon Indictment my self knows the man who under pain of Imprisonment and Banishment was forbid to use one Collect of our publick Prayers So that Usurpation and the true Worship seem like the Ark and Dagon they could by no means stand together Schism and Sedition are Twins contemporary to all Ages and therefore that the peace of God and his Church may be among us no one greater expedient can be found than an Vniformity in publick and divine Worship Nor is this extravagant or beside the Text for the Jews whilst yet they had but one God had but one Temple and in that Temple an Vniformity of Worship whilst they all worshipped God one and the same way so long Psal 122. 3. Jerusalem was a City at unity within it self yea and as it seems by the Prophet therefore at unity within it self For he no sooner gave this high commendation but streight followeth For thither the tribes go up the tribes of the Lord unto the testimony of Israel to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord. But when once Jeroboam had set up his Calves when the Tribes professing the same God set up divers and different ways of worship when the Samaritan had a Temple in Gerasin and the Lord another at Jerusalem when once they rent the Church and made a breach in publick Worship Judah and Israel Samaritan and Jew could never be reconcil'd from age to age the Schismatical disturbed and persecuted the Church of God It is observable from Jeroboams Calves to the return from Captivity there is numbred nigh 500 years and yet in all this time the Schismaticks kept their stomacks and left their malice as a successive Inheritance For when it was so that good King Cyrus sent home his Captives when he gave both leave and assistance to rebuild their Temple the Samaritans as afraid of the good old way of unity and uniformity in Worship they did even all they could to suppress the work Yea more than 400 years after that at the Feast of unleavened bread when the Priests did open the Gates about Midnight Samaritani quidam certain Samaritans entred into Jerusalem and went and spread mens Bones amidst the Porches and over all the Temple as Josephus Lib. 18. Now see the peevishness of Schismaticks all must conform to them or they to none For look what they themselves approved not that they would not the right Worshippers of God should do because they liked not the Festival because they would have no Holy-days because they themselves scrupled the keeping of the Feast of unleavened bread therefore they profane the Temple and do all they can to keep others from their bounden duty The Schismatical party could never be won never appeased after once there was Calves in Bethel and a Temple at Gerasin the Jew and Samaritan could never be at unity The Church of God blessed be God is not at this day confined to a People nor to a Temple Christians may in every place lift up pure hands and worship God But that we may so do in the unity of Spirit and in the bond of peace the premises to me evince there can be no greater expedient than Vniformity For the point here expresly spoken of and to it is publick Worship and almost all the heats and animosities of Christendom they arise about publick Worship I beseech you therefore brethren as St. Paul by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing For if the same confession of Faith be to the Glory of God and Christian Religion why not the same publick confession of sins the same publick oblations of Praise and Thanksgiving If to have one Minde and one Tongue be commendable and highly desirable in the Christian Church why not one Form of Prayer why not one publick Worship For that it is as expedient in our publick devotions as in our publick professions
then here propounded as it is not about service so neither is it about private or inward worship but it is about the outward and about the publickworship of God that is where Sacrifice was to be made where his publick Homage was to be paid whether Gerasin or Jerusalem was the place of publick worship Our blessed Master upon the point he rejecteth both saying The hour cometh and now is when to use the words of Malachi From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same my Name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place shall incense that is an holy Worship be offered unto my Name So that whereas of old Sacrifice and that onely in the Temple and that Temple at Jerusalem was God's highest acknowledgment and outward Worship he telleth the Samaritan that hereafter the worship of God would be in a clear other mode neither confined to place nor exprest by Sacrifice so that indeed Evangelical worship is the proper subject here to be enquired on to wit What is that publick Worship which the true Worshippers should use under the state and condition of the Gospel which from the legal I shall shew you differs both in the Object and in the Expression for Veri Adoratores the true Worshippers they shall worship the Father and him they shall worship in spirit and in truth First they shall worship the Father God in all ages and states of the Church hath had his worship but under sundry Methods and divers Notions for though he himself and his self onely was the sole object of divine Worship yet in several ages he hath been pleased to be worshipped under several Apellatives Names or Attributes For Exod. 6. 3. I appeared unto Abraham Isaac and Jacob by the Name of God Almighty but by my Name Jehovah was I not known unto them To Moses it seems God was known by a Name by which he was not known to Abraham and to Abraham probably by a Name by which he was not known to Adam So that it is conceived Adam and his posterity they worshipped God under the notion of a Creator Abraham as God Almighty Moses by his Name Jehovah Yea St. Jerom hath taken pains to number up and to explicate ten Names by which under the Old Testament the people of God did worship God and yet among them all no mention of this in my Text no approach to God under the notion of a Father Albeit then we may as the Jew did worship and approach unto God as the high God as the God of all Spirits as the God of vengeance as the Lord God of Sabbaoth yet we have through the mercies of God a far nigher and a dearer Relative for we cry Abba Father Veri Adoratores Cospel-worshippers they shall worship the Father Now if it be a Gospel-priviledge and that Priviledge upon Scripture-account a choice favour to worship and approach the living God under the Relation of a Father then we who have the enjoyment of this favour we who are the onely true worshippers of God we have not onely a more comfortable object but we have a singular and extraordinary and a most affectionate motive for to worship For we are to worship a Father Now if the Jew whose state was servile if they who had onely Attributes of power and terrour to draw them to their God if they went from their own home even as far as Jerusalem to worship if their fear carried them to the holy Temple are not we very unkindly and ungracious Children who so little love value or honour the House of our Father that albeit in the same Town we will not go up to worship Had the Worship of God been a performance of mean and slight account the Aethiopian Eunuch he would never have made so long a Journey as from his Country to Jerusalem to worship St. Paul then a Christian though he was oft told by the way that Troubles and Bonds abode him at Jerusalem yet for all the Now in my Text was begun and notwithstanding Bonds and Troubles abode him there up to Jerusalem he would and did and that upon this very account even to Worship Whereas then as a great grace and priviledge of the Gospel the Worship of God is brought even from Jerusalem to our own Doors changed from a costly to a cheap worship from Bullocks Goats and Lambs to Prayer and Praises and whereas to this better worship we are now invited not by an Appellative of Terrour but by Allurements of Love Being it is said the true Worshippers that is the Worshippers under the Gospel shall worship the Father If Faith and Obedience because the Gospel exacts them be Duty then the Worship of God which is equally required must needs be Duty too And what can be more express than this from our Saviour's own mouth Veri Adoratores adorabunt Patrem The true Worshippers shall worship the Father which that as we ought we may do we will pass to the last Considerable in my Text. Third The manner how In spirit and in truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiritu ac veritate as Beza with spirit and truth for he leaves out the In. And indeed there are more of the Learned beside him who taking this for an Hebraism conceive they ought to be so read and indeed so read the like For whereas it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I indeed Baptise you in Aqua we English it not in but with Water And whereas it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we read it right enough With one minde and one mouth glorisie God And whereas St. Paul saith God is my witness whom I serve in Spiritu meo we read it not in but with my Spirit And therefore whereas it is said in the Text The true worshippers shall worship in spiritu veritate we may very well read it thus The true Worshippers shall worship the Father with spirit and with truth And therefore those who think by these two words In Spiritu in Spirit for they never minde in Truth to void and destroy all outward Worship they may be deceived and mistaken in the very letter of the Text which being it may be as if not more justly read with the Spirit as in the Spirit the bottom of their Building it totters if not down And therefore for the better both Explication and Application of these words I shall reduce all that followeth into these four Propositions Spirit and Truth are not here opposed to outward bodily Worship nor to any outward expression of Grace or Virtue A publick Worship in Spirit without Truth the outward expression of it cannot be The Christian practice of worshipping God by Adoration and Liturgies demonstrates that they held that way the way of worshipping in Spirit and in Truth Lastly Being Christians are the onely true Worshippers I shall briefly shew how much it concerns us to give all due regard and
known that Prayer should be with such prudence and care composed that nothing be in any of publick cognizance which hath any thing of private Interest and Designe in it In the Offices of the Church of Rome and in factious Prayers we see and hear too much of this Upon Ash-wednesday thus prayeth the Roman party Omnipotent and eternal God spare the Penitent and be propitious to the Supplicant Et mittere digneris Sanctum Angelum tuum de Coelis qui Benedicat Sanctificet hos Cineres And vouchsafe to send down thine holy Angel from Heaven that he may bless and sanctifie these Ashes Will you see to what end It followeth Vt sint Remedium salutare Omnibus Nomen Sanctum tuum implorantibus semetipsos pro Conscientia Delictorum suorum accusantibus ante Conspectum Divinae Clementiae facinora deplorantibus vel serenissimam pietatem tuam suppliciter obnixeque flagitantibus That they may be an wholsom Remedy to all who humbly call upon thy holy Name and out of conscience of their own demerits accuse themselves deploring their heinous sins in the sight of thy Divine Clemency or humbly and earnestly begging thy most serene Piety Et praesta per invocationem sanctissimi Nominis tui ut quicumque eos super se asperserint pro Redemptione peccatorum suorum Corporis sanitatem Animae tutelam percipiant per Christum Dominum nostrum And grant that by the invocation of thy most holy Name whosoever shall sprinkle these upon themselves for the Redemption of their sins may receive the health of Body and protection of Soul through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now this Collect having that in it which the Principles of our Church allow not for as much as we are wholly ignorant of any capacity in Ashes of being blessed and sanctified or of any promise made that upon prayer for such a Sanctification God will send an Angel from Heaven on such an errand we not believing that Ashes are ordained to be an wholesom remedy to all who humbly call upon God's holy Name or that in order to remission of sin we may sprinkle them upon our Heads or if we should that thence should issue no not upon Christs account health to our Bodies or protection to our Souls we I say disbelieving all this cannot joyn in such Petitions neither give our presence or Amen to such a Prayer And many very many such extravagances are in the Roman Breviary and Missal Now if Protestants generally opine it is not lawful knowingly to be present when Petitions against their Judgement and Conscience are to be offered up in Prayer and prefer'd to God certainly then it is at least very dangerous for any Christian to frequent conceived and unknown Prayers For as bad or worse than any is in the Roman Liturgie have done and may come from men so praying And this probably was a main reason that the Independants dropt off from the Presbyterians and the Quakers both for neither having common principles neither could conscientiously endure to pray together And indeed to an unknown Prayer a discreet man may very well say he therefore will not be present at it I profess it is a grand desire of my Heart that as there is but one Shepherd so there might be one Fold I should rejoyce at nothing more than an universal Communion a Catholick Peace among Christians and perchance wise men will finde no one better expedient than an uniformity of Worship by such a Form of Prayer to which all sincere and sober Christians might say Amen Now a Form nigher to such an one wiser than my self have not seen any than our present Liturgie For let all the Exceptions to which the Roman Breviary and Missal are lyable and could they be numbred let all the insipid Excursions Vagaries Impertinences and Follies of Extemporary and conceived Prayer be reckoned up The Liturgie of the Church of England is not in any proportion for Exceptions to be compared with either our Compilers aiming as Christians more at Unity than at any discernable designe whatsoever But the Porch begins to be too big for the Building and therefore my most honourable Neighbour I thus contract In Privacies as Closets let the devout proceed a Gods Name to pour out their Souls by such expressions as may best heat Devotion and best fix the Spirit For words that most affect the Heart and best sute to private grievances and personal wantings are the best expedients there For indeed onely the Spirit of man knoweth what the Spirit would But when the religious Master in his Parlour shall call in his Family to publick Duty then the Prayer be it what it may it would be set and that were it onely therefore that the weak and more ignorant might surely learn it it being a very laudable and good thing to minister Words as well as Grace unto the hearer and also for this reason further to secure the stranger who upon this account can make but one hazard of his discretion for then he shall be able to discern whether or no it be meet for him any more to joyn in such a Form But if any worthy and devout person would that all who lodge under his Roof or come ordinarily to his Table should joyn with him at his hours of Prayer without some trespass upon prudence and civility he can neither desire nor require it unless he shall use a known and a publick Form and to chuse the Common-prayer For then shall the Strangers be Children of one and the same Mother the Church of England it would be an unhandsome refusal in them not to joyn in prayer for a blessing from God the Father in the words of our Catholick and holy Mother Which Blessing may God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost confirm to you and yours and upon all the honourable Family is the unfeigned desire of From Leamington-Hastang 1666. Honourable Sir Your Neighbour professing himself most ready to Love Honour and Serve you John Allington TO THE READER THough this little Treatise now appears under a second Impression it is the Author's First For the Father being in those days Proscriptus the Child might very proportionably be Expositivus When the Father durst not shew his Head the Childe durst not tell his Name Nor was it written with any intention of a publick View so that indeed by that shift it bear 's a fairer Front than he who writ it durst have put upon it for amongst the honourable Army of Confessors Divines sequestred upon our Church-account he held himself too too unworthy to write their Apology All his designe was to give the reasons of his own Sufferings and to shew that he conceived he had just cause to prefer the Liturgie to his peace Now for as much as these Reasons were given in such a time when if they had not been Reasons the Pressures and Indigenoes attending them would easily have discovered at their Request whom I much